Let's read verses 11 through
15 again. For the grace of God that bringeth
salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously,
and godly in this present world. looking for that blessed hope
and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem
us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people. zealous of good works. These things speak and exhort
and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee or resent
this." I was asking reading the Word, seeking a message from
the Lord, asking for a message when that verse 15 spoke to me. These things speak. So I had
my message. These things speak. These things. What things? Well, look at verse
1 of chapter 2. He says, Speak thou the things
which become sound Doctrine. Sound means solid. Biblical. Doctrine. Pure. Sound. Doctrine. He says in chapter 1, verse 9,
a bishop or a pastor must hold fast, hold tight to the faithful
word, God's word. He has no other message. He has no other power. He has nothing else but the word
of God. Hold fast this faithful word. He says, and by sound doctrine,
by this sound doctrine, he may be able to convince or exhort
and convince gainsayers. Gainsayers are those who question. and argue against the truth.
And so he tells me, as well as young Titus, hold fast to this
word, whatever God said. Look at chapter 1, verse 1. Paul said, I'm a servant of God,
an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect.
I'm an apostle by God's choosing and the message, messenger, apostle,
is the faith of God's elect. That's my message, the faith
of God's elect. All God's chosen believe this
same message. I received a letter from a young
man today, a very encouraging letter. I wanted to read it to
you, but I'm not going to for time's sake, but I may. But in
it, he told me that he felt like the Lord had revealed the truth
to him. And he's now being persecuted
and hated for it. And I wrote him back immediately
and told him, well, you're not alone. You now believe the faith
of God's elect. You now have the faith of God's
elect. Verse one, Paul goes on to say, I'm an apostle according
to the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth. for the declaration, the preaching,
the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. God's
word, God's gospel, the truth, which is after, that is, for
this purpose, to this end, of which promotes and produces godliness. That's how he started this, didn't
he? That's how he started this whole letter. Godliness. What
is godliness? Think of this word. If the word
godly, if you put the words good and holy together, you've got
godly. Now, don't hang your head. I
saw you already hanging your head. Don't do that. This is
God's Word. It's for us. I know we're all sinners here.
But that's the reason this is written. To exhort us, he said. Okay? All right? Christ died to the ungodly to
deliver them from their ungodliness. That's why he died, that's why
he came. This whole letter, this whole letter which is God's word
through the apostle is to a young preacher named Titus, and it's
very similar to Timothy's letter, both of them. And he tells this
young preacher, now the greater responsibility in these verses
was toward me, wasn't it? Anybody ought to be hanging their
head as me. Right? But he writes to a young preacher
and tells him how he ought to be. As opposed to all of these crooks
out there. Did you see how he addressed,
he said, these guys, these vain talkers and deceivers, their
mouths ought to be stopped. He said, this is the way you're
going to do it. With sound doctrine. and character. They're not going
to be able to accuse you of the things that they're guilty of,
such as being money hungry and so forth. Right? And he tells
this young preacher, he instructs him on how he ought to be and
what he should teach the people. That's what you read with me.
These things teach. These things, as opposed to all
the arguments that men will bring up against the truth. Alright, look at chapter 2, verse
10. He calls it the doctrine of God our Savior. Doesn't he? The doctrine of God
our Savior. Sound doctrine. The doctrine
of God our Savior. What is it? If you hung your
head, you're going to raise it up here real quick. The doctrine
of God our Savior is this, verse 11, the grace of God. This is
in a nutshell what we preach and what we believe. We preach
the doctrine of grace or the doctrine of God our Savior. The grace of God. The next few
verses are what we are going to dwell on. The teachings of
God's grace. It says that the doctrine of
God our Savior teaches us something. What God's sovereign grace teaches
us. All right. The first thing that this doctrine
of sovereign grace teaches us is this. that God is our Savior. You see, that's what I read last
week and got hung up on and didn't get to the rest of these verses
and went to Psalm 25, remember, Sunday. Went to Psalm 25 and
stayed there. And I didn't deal with the rest
of Titus 2. So instead we just went over to Psalm 25 and dealt
with that Psalm. God our Savior. The doctrine
of God our Savior is this. Look at chapter 3. Here it is.
Chapter 3. The doctrine of God our Savior
is this. Verse 3. We were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving different lusts and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful, hating one another, but after the kindness
and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. He says, we were ungodly, sinful,
and so forth. This sounds just like Ephesians
2 verse 1, doesn't it? And you, hath he quickened, who
were dead in trespass and sin. Ephesians 2 goes on, I don't
want to misquote it, it says, in time past ye walked according
to the course of this world. According to the prince of the
power of the air, that is, under his dominion, spirit that now
works in the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of our mind, flesh and of our mind, were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others, but God." It sounds just
like this to me. This is the doctrine of God our
Savior. And you, but God. Verse 4 says that very thing,
doesn't it? But after the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done.
You remember reading that over in Deuteronomy with me? Not for
your sake, not for your righteousness sake, but for my name sake. Not
by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
his mercy he hath saved us. Here is the doctrine of God our
Savior. God's our Savior and He's had mercy on guilty sinners.
How's that? Read on. By the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, the washing of water by the Word
of God, the washing away of our sins by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the renewing or the regenerating or new birth
of the Holy Spirit which He shed on us abundantly. through, and
this is all through and by, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. And we are justified, he says,
by his grace. Here is the doctrine of God our
Savior. Here is the doctrine of grace.
We are justified by his grace, completely, 100 percent, declared
holy, unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight by the grace of
God in Jesus Christ. Now, why are you hanging your
head, huh? Read on. No, it doesn't stop
there. We're justified, we're made heirs, made heirs, joint
heirs with Christ according to the hope of eternal life. And
this is a faithful saying. Oh, yes, that sounds like 1 Timothy
1.15. This is a faithful saying worthy
of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the world to
save sinners of whom I am cheap. Go on. And these things I will
that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed
in God, God our Savior, those who have believed this doctrine,
this preaching, the truth, that they might be careful to maintain
good works. What's wrong with that? You see, this is what Paul said.
Again, it sounds so much like Ephesians 2, doesn't it? It says
in Ephesians 2, by grace are you saved. By grace are you saved. Through faith. And it's not of yourselves. That's
the grace of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. What
for? What's it all about? What's salvation
all about? And two, good work. That's what
it's all about. That's what it's all about. God
has saved us. So the doctrine of God our Savior,
first thing we learn is God saved us. God saved us. Salvation is of the Lord. Remember that story of the deaf
and dumb man over in Mark chapter 7? Remember that? Where it says
the Lord opened his ears and finally loosened his tongue.
And we concluded that the first thing that he said, now that
his tongue was loosed and he was able to speak right, the
first thing he said was salvation is of the Lord. I'm just sure
of it. Like that young man I heard from.
He argued against this at first, but now he knows. And Brother John read from Psalm
51 in the study which says, Open my lips and my mouth shall show
forth thy praise. If you loosen this tongue, it
will speak right. Thy praise. what the doctrine of God our
Savior is. God has saved us. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. All right, what did he save us
from? Call his name Jesus, for he shall
do what? Save his people from their sins. That's what salvation is all
about. is our Savior from sin, the penalty
of it. The penalty of it. If Christ
doesn't do something for us, we will be punished for our sin. But Christ suffered hell for
his people. The punishment for sin. Death.
Separation from God. Didn't he? That's the penalty
of it. Christ, God our Savior, came
to save us from the power of sin. He said, sin shall not have
dominion over you. Now, I read to you from Ephesians
2 where it says, yet once did. What you live for, Romans 6 talks
about that. What we once lived for, Made
no apology for it. No repentance of it. Loved it. Lived for it. Looked forward
to it. Did everything we could to satisfy it. Right? But Christ came to save us from
that power. That power of sin. That controlling,
reigning power. And Christ will someday deliver
us from the presence of it. Someday we will be, I mean actually,
without sin. We'll have a body and it won't
be a body of death like Paul wrote in Romans 7, but a holy body like Christ joined
with our new man. Alright, look at this in verse
1. He says, and you. Well, no, I'm going to go on. I'm going to go on. This salvation by grace is salvation
from sin. We don't have time to read all
of that. But Titus chapter 2, he says
in verse 11, the grace of God is that which brings salvation.
The grace of God gives salvation. And he says it comes to all,
doesn't it? The grace of God that comes to
all men. And he said this in another place over in Let's see,
1 Timothy 2, he says something like that. Listen to it. He tells
young Timothy, I exhort therefore that supplication, prayer, and
so forth be made for all men, kings, those in authority, and
so on. God is our Savior who will have
all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
So this is the same sense that he said over there. He's talking
about Well, the God who will have all sorts of men, all types
of men. It said over there in 1 Corinthians
1, not many wise men at the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble.
It doesn't say not any. There was a queen in England
years ago, a noble woman, a queen, born a queen. And I think it
was John Knox or Jonathan, I forget who it was. Who was it, Ed? John
Knox, maybe? She said, one of those old preachers,
she said, I'm thankful for the letter M. I'm so thankful. She said, because
it does not say not any noble, but not many. She said, God will
have all men, all sorts of men. And he just talked about masters
and servants and so forth, didn't he? And remember our Lord said, I
hardly shall day that have riches enter the kingdom of heaven.
Remember that? He said it's easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle. And I look around me today at
this country of ours and how it's rich and increased with
goods and has needed nothing. It's a wonder anybody ever gives
God a thought. It's no No wonder, really, that
people in these big cities, they don't have time for, that there
aren't any gospel churches in most people. It's no wonder to
me, is it? So, the Lord said it's pure to
all men, all sorts of men, all types of men. All. Men, women,
children, masters, servants, Jew, Gentile, kings, peasants,
employers, employees. Now look at verse 12. Here's
the grace of God. Here's what it teaches us. Verse
12. When the grace of God, this gospel of God's grace, the doctrine
of God our Savior, teaches us that denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly
in this present world. Now keep your head up. Isn't
that what you want? Isn't that what you want? If you're a child of God, if
you're a lover of God, a lover of Christ, this is what you want.
Isn't it? The old saying is, the sincerest
form of flattery, imitation, is the sincerest form of flattery.
Somebody you really love and admire, you want to be just like
them. Huh? You with me? See, the scripture says God predestinated
us in Christ Jesus to be holy and unblameable before Him in
love. Do you want to be like Jesus Christ? Don't you want
to be just like Jesus Christ in every way right now? Huh? If I asked you, are you a no-good,
rotten sinner, what would you say? How would you respond? Are
you a no-good, rotten, hell-deserving sinner? Boy, you can just nod
real... Well, don't you want to be like
Jesus Christ and done with that, huh? Don't you? Okay, I got you.
All right. That's what this is all about. That's what it's for. That's
what salvation is all about. That's what it's all about. I asked Charles Spurgeon one
time. They said, if you could have
anything in this life, anything at all, God would grant you one
thing, what would it be? And he said, without reservation,
that I might never sin again. That would be good, wouldn't
it? It's the source of all our trouble.
All of it. Isn't it? All of them. Our Lord was without sin, wasn't
he? He had perfect peace, perfect
contentment, perfect joy, perfect communion with the Father, perfect,
perfect, perfect. I'm not preaching our sinless
perfection now. I'm preaching his. But I'm preaching
the believer's desire to be like Christ. This is what it teaches
us. Did the Lord suffer persecution?
Did the Lord suffer trouble? Did the Lord suffer trial? Did
the Lord suffer, suffer, suffer? Yes, He sure did, but He had
perfect pity. So what is the source of our
problem? Sin. Sin. David said, My sin is ever before
mine. Well, the grace of God. The grace of God that brings
salvation teaches us, first of all, to deny ungodliness. Turn with me to the book of Jude,
a little tiny book, just 25 verses, one chapter. The book of Jude,
right before the revelation. Look over there. Jude. The gospel of God's grace. See,
this is... You are witnesses. that nobody
ever will accuse us of preaching the gospel in such a way as to
make people licentious. Can they? No sir, buddy. That's
an argument against preaching of sovereign grace, isn't it? If you preach that way, men will
live like they want to. Look at verse 15, ungodliness. This is more vital than ever,
this message, it really is. I was looking forward to preaching
this, even though I knew you'd experience a little conviction
and a little bit of unease, but I was looking forward to it because
I know this is good. It's more vital now than ever
before in the history of mankind. This message right here, to the
church. He says that Christ is coming in verse 15 with 10,000
of his saints to execute judgment upon all and to convince all
that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which
they have ungodly committed and all their hard speeches which
ungodly sinners have spoken against him. Now, do you want to be ungodly
or do you want to deny it? Whatever ungodliness is, I don't
want to be that way. Do you? So the grace of God teaches us
to deny ungodliness. We live in the most ungodly generation
in the history of mankind. Listen to me now, young people
especially. You listen carefully. Clearly, God is removing his
restraining hand from our generation. It's clear. Look around you. The United States of America
is all but a reprobate society. Anything goes, just like it was in Sodom and
Gomorrah. And so, this is the most ungodly,
God living, good and holy, ungodly generation in the history
of mankind. Homosexuality. In Romans chapter
1, homosexuality is the final judgment of God upon a society. If you read Romans chapter 1,
it talks about how they hold the truth in unrighteousness,
that is for evil means. They are not thankful. They didn't
like to retain God in their knowledge, think they're wise with the fools,
and so on and so forth. And he says, so God gave them
over to a reprobate mind to do these sort of things, and homosexuality
is the product of false religion and these things. It's the final
giving over of a people. Are you listening to me carefully
now? And Paul went on to say there
in Romans 1, that they not only do these things, but he says,
they not only do these things, but take pleasure, knowing the
judgment of God against those that commit these,
not only do the same, but have pleasure in them. that doomed
them. Their national organization is
called Act Up. Gay pride. People don't call
it gay. Deny it. You hear me? Deny it. Call it what it is. God says
it's an abomination. Deny it. This is what the grace
of God teaches us. To deny ungodliness. Deny it. It's an abomination to God. Ungodly
means all that is opposite of what is good, holy, and pure
according to God's law, God's Word. Ungodly is whatever is
opposite of God. It's ungodly, right? Whether it be in the world or
in religion, especially religion, modern religion is ungodly. Deny it. Reject it. Thumbs down, every bit of it.
It's for filthy, we read this, for filthy lucre's sake and so
on. So for saying things they shouldn't say. God's saving grace teaches us,
causes us to deny and renounce it. Though nobody else does,
Jeanette. Though nobody else will. You're
hard pressed to find a preacher standing up today saying anything,
clearly, that God's word says and denounces. Right? And now people listen to me,
young people and old people alike, do not become insensitive to
sin in any way, shape, form or fashion. This is what God's going
to destroy this world for. Didn't he say that? 1 Corinthians
6 and other places. Don't be deceived that because
of these things cometh the wrath of God on the children of Israel.
These things. That's what he said. He said, no you not, that they
will not inherit the kingdom of God. And he said, and such
were some of you. Well, what happened? The sovereign grace of God. The
sovereign electing grace and mercy of God. That's what the
doctrine of God our Savior. Such were some of you, but you
washed. Washed. So don't ever, don't get insensitive
to that, deny it. That's what it says there, deny
it. Deny it ungodly. And worldly lust, look at that,
verse 12. And worldly lust, deny it. What
are worldly lusts? Well, John told us that lust
of the eyes, lust of the flesh, pride of life, didn't he? Are
you with me? This is vital. We're asleep in
the enchanted ground. Don't do it. Don't do it. Worldly lusts are this. This
is what the world lives for. Food, drink, sports, sex, money. Isn't it? That's the lust of the world. And they make no bones about
it. And everything you see, we're bombarded with these things. Right? This is the world. Deny
it. The world makes no apology that
that's what it's after. That's not what we're after.
We sing that song, things that are higher. things that are nobler,
these have allured my sights, haven't they? Instead of base
animal. None of us are immune to these
things. None of us are without this completely,
but deny it. But he said, don't you want to? Worldly lust. God's grace teaches
us, read on, verse 12, that we should live soberly. Soberly. When you think of sober, what
do you think of? Somebody that's not drunk, don't you? Well, that's
a pretty good way to look at it. But we've seen before how
you can be intoxicated with many things. Can't you? Not just drink, but many things. It's March. Madness. It is madness, too. People live
for it, don't they? Intoxicated with it. Drunk over
it. They lose their lives over it.
Give their lives to it. Intoxicate. Be not intoxicated
with anything, riches, pleasure, power, fame. Live soberly. Read on. And righteously. What's righteous? What's righteous
mean? What does righteous mean? Have you ever seen that there's
a difference between the word righteousness and sanctification?
There's a difference. The word righteous is exactly
what you think it means. Right. What's right? What's right? Live righteous, do what's right.
What's right? Whatever he says, Mary said,
do it. Do it. It's right. It's good, it's just. That's what Paul said. The commandment
is good, just, holy and true. It's right. It's right. David
said, I love, oh, how I love thy law. He said, I esteem all
thy precepts concerning all things to be," what? Right. Right. Just because I can't do
it perfectly doesn't mean it's not going to keep me from trying. Just because I'm wrong doesn't
mean it's not right. Whatever's right. Whatever's
right. That's the way it's set. The doctrine of God our Savior
teaches us to live righteously. What is right according to God's
Word? Old-fashioned. What's right?
I'll tell you now more than ever, what's right is whatever is as
old as God. This is old-fashioned. You better
believe it. Listen to this. Jeremiah 6.16,
Thus saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord. Does this
get your attention? Thus saith the Lord. Stand ye in the ways,
we looked at that Sunday, the ways and the way of Psalm 25. Teach me thy way, show me thy
ways, he said, and show me thy way, remember? Stand ye in the
ways and see and ask for the old paths. Where is the good
way? and walk therein, and you shall
find rest for your souls." Faith in Christ and obedience
to his commands. You will find rest for your souls.
But they said, we will not. We have something new. Look at Galatians chapter 1 with
me. Galatians chapter 1. Turn there. Every eye, every
person has a Bible. We need to read this. Galatians
chapter 1. This is what salvation is all
about. Not just us to escape hell, but
to keep from living in it while we're here. Look at Galatians 1, verse 4.
Well, verse 3. You know, the apostle begins
every single epistle with grace and peace, some of them with
mercy also. Every epistle, grace and peace,
because that's the gospel. Grace and peace be to you, and
peace from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who
gave himself for our sins. Why? That he might deliver us
from present evil world. See that? It's present right
now. Right now. If he doesn't, we're
going down with it. Right? Young people, if God doesn't
deliver you now from this present evil world, you'll go down with
it. If God doesn't set you apart
by His grace, is this vital? Well, he said the grace of God,
Titus 2, the grace of God teaches us, verse 12, that we should
live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world. Doesn't it? That's what I want.
Isn't that what you want, Earl A. Sheeley? That's what I want in this present
world. Looking for the grace of God,
the gospel of God's sovereign grace, the doctrine of God our
Savior teaches us to look for. Here's what you look for. Here's
not only who you look to, but here's what you look for. This
rejoiced my heart. Did it you when we were reading
it? Looking for that blessed hope. That blessed hope is a
person. We're saved by hope. What are
we hoping? It's not a what, it's a who.
Christ our hope. Hope of eternal life, which God
that promised us cannot lie. And he said, the grace of God
teaches us to look for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. He's talking about
the same person. That glorious appearing. We're
looking for that glorious appearing. Boy, this is old-fashioned, isn't
it? But that's what we're doing.
This is what God's gospel has taught us to do. Keep looking.
Not only looking unto the Lord Jesus Christ as we run this race,
but looking for him to return. He said, I'll come. Surely I'll
come quickly. He said, you wait for me. Terry
at Jerusalem and I'll be there. Terry at Mount Zion. I'm coming. Don't forsake the assembly of
ourselves together, but exhort one another so much more as we
see what? The glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ approaching.
Don't you see the sky? It's red in glory. Don't you
see that? Can't you see the fig tree and all the fruits that
have gone? The glorious appearing, and it's
going to be glorious. And I can't preach it because
I haven't seen it. I'd like to. I've tried and failed
miserably. The glorious appearing of the
great God. Now, wait a minute. God's going
to appear? Yes. Great is the mystery of God,
and this God is manifesting. Isaiah 25 and 9 says, It will
be said in that day, This is our God. We hath waited on him. He'll save us. The great God. Try that one on, Jeanette, try
that one on these Jehovah's Witnesses. Try that verse. God's going to
appear? I thought no man could see, has
seen, or can see, or ever will see. Right there it says He's
going to appear. The great God. And our Savior,
Jesus Christ. So we're looking. The grace of
God teaches us. The gospel of God's grace says,
wait, wait. Look for him, let us not sleep
as do others, but wait, watch, look, looking for. We're looking
for another city, folks. That's why we deny worldly love. It promises what it can't give.
The deceitfulness of riches. It promises what it can't give. It promises happiness. It promises
peace. It promises prosperity. It's
the opposite of those things. We look for him, our peace, Christ. We look for another city wherein
dwelleth what? Righteousness. I've often thought
how I'd love to have lived, if I could live, if you could live,
let me ask you, if you could live any time period ever in
history, when would you live? Have you ever thought about that? What would you say? Where would you say I'd live
during Christ's day and be with one of the apostles? Well, yeah,
but that was three years and they had got their heads cut
off. Where would you have lived? I
think, I think I'd like to have lived when Solomon was king. Don't you? He reigned 40 years,
I think, and it says every man, it says there was peace all around
and every man dwelled on his own vine and fig tree and make
it all sit at Solomon's table every day and it's just peace
and a godly king, a godly place, a city wherein dwelleth righteousness. If you want to live on this earth,
isn't that where you'd like to live? Well, we're looking for one.
And it's coming. It's coming down. The whole of
Jerusalem. Wherein dwelleth righteousness.
Everything in it is right. Everything about me that's wrong
is going to be gone. Nothing in it that will tell
us a lie or make us a liar. Looking for that. Hoping for
it. Wishing, praying, waiting. Aren't you? The end. Waiting
for the end. Are you waiting for the end?
I've got a secret for you. It's really the beginning. You look it up sometime, every
time, where it mentions, in the New Testament anyway,
about someone dying, a believer dying, it calls it sleep. It
doesn't call it death. The Lord doesn't refer to it
as death. And those that sleep before us will not prevent them
from sleeping. It doesn't say anything. Because
our Lord said, he that liveth and believeth in me shall never
die. You believe this? And so when we get to the end,
Nancy, The end of our days, and the Lord has set our ends, our
bounds we cannot pass. Our days are numbered with the
Lord. He set them. He set Joe's. He set Shannon's.
He set Linda's. He set Ellen's. He set Virgie's. He set them all. The Lord set
them all. The way, the day, and the end was just the beginning. It wasn't the end at all. They
pass to be absent from the body as present with the Lord. Who wouldn't want that? There's
absolutely nothing to fear. Our Lord said, be not afraid,
fear not. He said, in the world you shall
have tribulation. Be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. I've overcome death. I've overcome your sins. Sin
shall not have dominion over you. You think it will, but it
will not. I've got my Holy Spirit with His hand on you, living
in you. There's a new man in you that's going to have the
upper hand. Count on it. Count on Him. Him. It's not the end. We're looking
for the end, which is really the beginning. Looking for. This is what the
grace of God teaches us. And we have here no continuing
city. Hebrews 11 said, If they had been mindful of those things.
Lot's wife looked back, didn't she?